Graduation Day dawned dark and stormy, but that didn’t stop around 1,300 St. Petersburg College grads – and more than 9,000 of their friends and family members – from filling Tropicana Field for SPC’s first collegewide, in-person commencement ceremony since December 2019.
The May 7 celebration, SPC’s 143rd, included not only this year’s graduates but also those from 2020 and 2021 who wished to be acknowledged.
Torrence Andrews, 23, worked two jobs while taking classes to earn his associate degree in Engineering Technology, so he was happy that SPC was able to reinstate a traditional ceremony after two years of online graduations and smaller Grad Walk events at various campuses.
“Celebrating around all the other graduates just gives me a boost of pride and confidence,” Andrews said. “We all did this together, and we made it through, and now we’ll walk together.”
The St. Petersburg College Band opened the ceremony with Pomp and Circumstance as the faculty filed in to their seats in full regalia. SPC President Dr. Tonjua Williams took the stage to welcome the graduates and their thousands of admirers, offering some statistics, which included:
- SPC has conferred 192,291 degrees and certificates since its beginning in 1927.
- Among the 2,254 2022 graduates, the youngest is 16, and the oldest is 74.
- 531 were the first in their family to earn a college degree.
Sprowls encouraged graduates to work hard and keep trying, sharing a story of how he checked daily on his admission to Stetson University after he was wait listed and got in when he turned up in person to file his next year’s application. “You’ve got to show up and let life show off,” he told the crowd.
And never forget the truly important things in life, Sprowls added.
“The greatest rewards we get in life – as high and amazing as this one is – it’s not the highest,” he said. “The greatest are the relationship we have with our God and the relationship we have with our family.”
Student Honors
Ken Burke, Chairman of SPC’s Alumni Association, presented the student honors: the Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor for bachelor’s degree graduates, and the Apollo Award, the highest honor among Associate Degree earners.
Garrick Roe, a Public Policy and Administration graduate, was presented the Alumni Achievement Award. Roe, an Honors College student, was a peer mentor, an SGA member, and founded the Permaculture Club, which planted a self-sustaining permaculture garden at the St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus. Roe said when he began his studies at SPC at the age of 40 as a high school dropout, he wasn’t looking to make new friends or family.
“I just wanted that degree,” Roe said. “But that’s not how it works at SPC. At SPC, not only do you earn a diploma, you also create lifelong friends and college family, and I’m grateful for mine.”
Patricia Roberts, who earned an Associate in Arts in Education, was given the Apollo Award. Roberts said she could never have predicted her current life five years ago. A high school dropout and teen mom, she described enduring an abusive relationship, a myriad of serious health issues and a series of minimum wage jobs. She then challenged her peers.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” she asked. “All it takes is the first step: believing in yourself. Make the changes you fear, as the rewards will be worth the discomfort. It may not always be easy, but it will always be worth it!”
Long Distance
A livestream of the event on the college’s YouTube channel allowed family and friends near and far who couldn’t attend the ceremony to tune in and watch it live or watch it later.
All of Heidi Ingraham’s family lives in her home state of Arizona, so the 21-year-old appreciated the livestream that allowed her family to gather and see her cross the stage in real time after earning her Crime Scene Technology certificate.
“My family lives all the way across the country, so they couldn’t make it here,” Ingraham said. “So the livestream allows them to sort of be here, especially my 86-year-old grandma. I grew up watching CSI with her all the time, so she takes full responsibility for my crime scene certificate.”
Watch the graduation ceremony in its entirety here.
See more photos from graduation here.
Learn more about becoming a future SPC graduate here.
Original source can be found here.
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